Trump ally Joe diGenova falsely claims Democrats will steal Pennsylvania using “a classic vote count scheme”

The Trump campaign and its allies in right-wing media are laying the groundwork to limit the counting of mail-in ballots in the key swing state

Written by Alex Walker

Published

Joe diGenova — a Republican lawyer with ties to both President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr — falsely claimed on Monday that Democrats will manufacture fraudulent mail-in ballots in order to win Pennsylvania. DiGenova’s remarks are part of a broader effort by right-wing media and the Trump campaign to limit the counting of mail-in ballots and undermine election integrity in the key battleground state.

The counting of mail-in ballots does not constitute election fraud, and vote tallying never ends by election night. But the Trump campaign and right-wing media, recognizing that mail-in ballots are likely to favor Democrats in Pennsylvania, have baselessly suggested that counting these ballots after election night would somehow be an attempt to “steal” the state. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud involving mail-in ballots.

Additionally, diGenova has ties to Trump and Barr — both of whom have also made a variety of false, baseless claims about mail-in ballots ahead of the election.

During an appearance today on WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall, diGenova claimed that after election night, Democrats would manufacture mail-in ballots to make up for a supposed vote deficit. DiGenova baselessly suggested that Democrats were going to engage in “classic Eastern European, Russian election engineering” and claimed that Pennsylvania is a “corrupt state.”

Joe diGenova: "This is classic Eastern European, Russian election engineering."

From the November 2, 2020, edition of WMAL's Mornings on the Mall

MARY WALTER (CO-HOST): Joe, should President Trump look like he is going to be the winner -- let's say he is declared the winner in Pennsylvania, which of course is not going to happen on election night, Pennsylvania is going to be a slow-counting state -- but if it looks as if it is headed that way preliminarily in Pennsylvania, what do the Democrats do in order to swing it to Joe Biden?

JOE DIGENOVA (REPUBLICAN LAWYER): They sue. Listen, this is a classic vote count scheme. You know, the guy who used to run Tammany Hall used to say, “Hey, what's all this all about voting? The only thing that matters is the counting, and I am in charge of counting." What you see going in Pennsylvania is Tammany Hall squared. The Pennsylvania -- they are going to wait and see how much Trump wins the popular vote in Pennsylvania by. Then, over the next two weeks, they are going to miraculously find ballots that haven't been counted and they're going to add up to just enough to beat Donald Trump.

WALTER: Yep.

DIGENOVA: Make no mistake about it. That's what this is about. This is a counting scheme. It's not an election scheme, it's a counting scheme. And anybody who doesn't see that, including four members of the United States Supreme Court, is an idiot.

VINCE COGLIANESE (CO-HOST): What can Republicans do to ensure that the votes are accurately counted, Joe?

DIGENOVA: Sue. Just like the Democrats are going to do. If they want to litigate, it's time to litigate. This is what this is about. The Democrats from day one have set out to have this election delegitimized by using mail-out balloting. By having these idiot governors send out millions of ballots to people who haven't asked for them, not knowing where they are going to end up, who's going to sign them. In Pennsylvania, there doesn't have to be a matching signature. They can come in days after the election is over with no postmark. This is a prescription for a fraudulent election. This is classic Eastern European, Russian election engineering. It's mind-boggling. And so the only remedy that the Republicans have left is litigation and good lawyering. That's what you do in a situation like this. When you have a corrupt state -- and make no mistake about it, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has been known for years as being the most corrupt Supreme Court in the United States, with West Virginia as a close second.